Effect of Indol Butyric Acid (IBA) on the Growth of Dragon Fruit Cuttings (Hylocereus costaricensis)

Abstract

The difficulty of root formation cuttings dragon fruit plants is influenced by several factors; The first disease that often occurs is a rotten stem. This disease usually strikes in early planting dragon fruit, dragon fruit plants often have decay at the base of the stems, there are brown and white fur. The decay caused by excessive soil moisture so it appears that the fungus that causes rot (Sclerotium rolfsii sacc). Both the stem to rot can also be caused when the rod directly planted, the sap is still wet rot can give effect to the dragon fruit cuttings. One attempt to increase the percentage growth of cuttings is using Indol Butyric Acid (IBA), which is a type of plant growth regulator that is used to stimulate root formation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of indole butyric acid (IBA) on the growth of stem cuttings of red dragon fruit (Hylocereus costaricensis). This research was conducted at the village Sidorukun, District Pangkatan, Labuhan Batu Regency, with a height of ± 39 m asl, from July to September 2016. The research design used in this study is a randomized block design with 5 treatments the concentrations of the hormone IBA consists of A0: 0 ppm, A1: 4000 ppm, A2: 5000 ppm, A3: 6000 ppm, A4: 7000 ppm and 5 replicates so that there are 25 total plot trials. Parameters observed that the percentage of the emergence of shoots, age appeared shoots, shoot length (cm), fresh weight of shoots (g), dry weight of shoots (g), root length (cm), fresh weight of the root (g), the volume of roots (g), root dry weight (g). Data were analyzed using linear models continued with Duncan test. The results obtained showed that the administration of Indole butyric acid (IBA) significantly affected the percentage of observation parameters appear buds, shoots emerging age, number of shoots, root length, fresh weight of root, root volume, and root dry weight. But it did not affect the parameters of observation shoot length, fresh weight of shoots, and buds dry weight. Keywords: dragon fruit plants (Hylocereus costaricensis), Indole butyric acid (IBA), cuttings, growth.